The present invention relates to a system for automatically distributing and supplying parts, and more particularly to an automatic parts distributing and supplying system of high versatility for accurately and reliably feeding a predetermined number of valve guides, for example, at desired spaced intervals to an apparatus for pressing the valve guides into a cylinder head for an internal combustion engine, the system being capable of easily varying the number of valve guides to be supplied and the spaced intervals thereof, so that valve guides can be supplied for installation on cylinder heads of various different types.
Internal combustion engines are assembled within a short period of time and highly efficiently in an automated line production process. When installing valve guides on a cylinder head for the purpose of mounting inlet valves and outlet valves on the cylinder head, for example, valves guides delivered from a parts feeder or the like are automatically supplied in a certain quantity at spaced intervals by means of an automatic supply apparatus to a valve guide installing apparatus by which the valve guides are pressed into the cylinder head.
At present, there are available various types of engines, i.e., two-cylinder, three-cylinder, four-cylinder, six-cylinder engines, and engines with two valves per cylinder and four valves per cylinder, for example.
The conventional automatic supply apparatus is designed to supply a fixed number of valve guides at fixed spaced intervals for each of engines of one type, because for a different engine type, a different number of valve guides to be installed must be pressed into a cylinder head at a different angle and in different positions. Therefore, where many different engine types are to be assembled, as many different automatic supply apparatus as the number of such different engine types must be employed. This would however be economically infeasible, and require a considerable space for the automatic supply apparatus to occupy in a working area, making it difficult to utilize the working area effectively. Such an arrangement would not lend itself to a presently employed system for manufacturing many engine types each in a small quantity.
The valve guide installing apparatus should be supplied with a desired number of valve guides that have been positionally adjusted to meet their angle and positions required when pressing the valve guides into a cylinder head. Generally, therefore, as many delivery passages as desired are provided between a parts feeder and the valve guide installing apparatus so that valve guides will be supplied through the delivery passages to the valve guide installing apparatus.
With the above conventional design, however, the delivery passages cannot be of a bent shape where the parts to be delivered are shaped like rods, such as valve guides. Consequently, the delivery passages have to be considerably long in a horizontal direction between the parts feeder and the valve guide installing apparatus. A considerable period of time is thus required for sending valve guides from the parts feeder to the valve guide installing apparatus, with the result that it is difficult to press the valve guides into the cylinder head efficiently. Since valve guides are delivered horizontally down the delivery passages, they cannot smoothly be fed in and along the delivery passages, and may not be reliably supplied to the valve guide installing apparatus.